People tend to learn new and/or better ways to diagnose and solve problems by being exposed to another person's diagnosis of and/or solution to a problem. In business environments where problems are regularly handled by a community of problem-solvers, businesses have attempted to increase the efficiency of problem-solving by the community using tools such as standard operating procedures (SOPs), intranet sites, best practices, and other types of knowledge sharing resources.
Traditionally, information technology (IT) support personnel respond to work orders that are generated by a system in response to problems identified by the system. After diagnosing and solving the problem, a person that diagnosed and solved the problem may write a description of the particular method of diagnosis and solution used to address the work order. This description is then typically logged and is retrievable by other members of the community. However, this approach is time-consuming and does not necessarily capture enough information or the right information to help properly educate other personnel. For example, the descriptions may leave out portions that another person may find useful. Furthermore, it may be difficult for people to find relevant descriptions and relevant sections of the descriptions in the collection of descriptions.